BRUSSELS, October 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Defense Ministry will send a delegation to NATO military exercises in November, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.
The exercises, named Steadfast Jazz 2013, will be held on November 2 to 9 in Poland and Baltic states, the North Atlantic alliance has announced.
Shoigu told journalists in Brussels after a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council that his country had received an invitation to the exercises and that a Russian delegation would “take part.”
He noted that a recent series of Russian-Belarusian drills, entitled Zapad (West) 2013, were attended by more than 80 military attaches. “We plan to continue such transparency measures in the future,” he said.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen thanked Russia on Tuesday for inviting NATO observers to the Zapad 2013 exercises.
